Hilton Properties are currently facing several lawsuits after multiple complaints of discrimination against Black guests. One of the more recent incidents took place in March 2018, at the Hilton Richmond Downtown in Virginia.
According to USA Today, after Albert Law, a software executive from Atlanta checked into the hotel, he was approached by a security guard as he was waiting in the lobby.
“Do you belong here?” the guard asked while demanding to see Law’s room key and ID.
Law later noted that he was extremely offended by this ordeal as he was the only Black person seated next to several white people, who were not asked the same question as him.
“It’s a level of humiliation you can never get out of your head,” he said.
Law was in town for a law enforcement administrator’s conference. He will be represented by attorney Jason Kafoury, who feels as though Hilton allows such intolerance when they let their staff to confront guests in such a manner.
“Hilton invites unbridled discrimination by encouraging hotel staff to confront persons in public areas and demand that they prove their right to be there,” he said. “When guests take offense at being singled out, police are called.”
Kafoury will also be handling several other classes, all involving Black plaintiffs.
Contrary to Law and Kafoury’s beliefs, spokesman Nigel Glennie states that Hilton has a zero-tolerance policy against any form of racism or discrimination.
On behalf of Hilton, Glennie said:
“We expect all guest engagement, including when and how a guest may be approached, to be completely free of bias.”
The particular hotel in question, Hilton Richmond Downtown, stated that they could not comment on Mr. Law’s lawsuit. However, they provided a statement that read:
“It is our policy to ensure that every guest feels welcomed. We train our team members to do everything in their power to deliver an optimal experience, including looking after the safety and security of our guests.”
Attorney Ben Crump, the lead counsel for George Floyd’s family, will also represent a Black woman who faced similar discrimination at a Hilton brand hotel.
Last month, a woman who chooses not to be identified, posted footage of two officers and a white hotel employee confronting her while her two children were playing in the swimming pool at a Hampton Inn, in Williamston, North Carolina.
According to reports, the two officers and the hotel staff member demanded that the woman prove that she was a guest at the hotel.
“I feel it’s discrimination. I have a room here,” the woman said, holding up her room key.
Via Twitter, Crump stated the hotel’s action against the Black woman was “smacked of injustice.”
“For a hotel employee to DEMAND to see proof of being a guest only from the Black person and not from White people using the pool is BLATANT DISCRIMINATION,” he tweeted, adding that Calling the police is harassment.
The global head of Hampton, Shruti Gandhi Buckley, later said that the hotel no longer employs the hotel employee that singled out the Black woman.
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